Quality of private driving lessons in Singapore

When I was a learner driver, I took driving lessons from two Ubi private driving instructors – Mr Tan and Mr Teo. As there was a huge demand for private driving instructors in Singapore, one instructor will not be able to provide me with the number of lessons I needed within a short time. Hence, I took lessons with two driving instructors. I can see the strong demand for private driving instructors persisted till today.

The demand for private driving instructors will not be so great if the quality of their private driving lessons is low. People chooses to learn from private driving instructors because they know they can get good quality driving lessons at a fraction of the costs that the driving centers charge. First-time passing rates of private learners have been ranging between a decent 40% to 50%.

How can we measure the quality of the private driving lessons?

First, the credibility of the driving instructor plays a big part. Today, every private driving instructor should have at least 20 years of driving coaching experience under their belt. The Singapore Traffic Police ceased the issuance of the private driving instructor license decades ago. With no new blood joining the private driving industry, it is safe to conclude the previous claim of the private driving instructors having at least 20 years of coaching experience. If they do not have it, chances are that they are fakes.

Second, the driving lessons must be systematic and structured. The private learner should feel that he is progressing with every new lesson. The level of difficulty of the driving lessons should increase gradually with each passing lesson. The private driving lessons should start with the basics and end at the most difficult maneuver. Typically, the first lesson will teach basics such as acceleration and brakes while the last lesson will be focused on the parallel parking.

Third, communication between the instructor and the learner driver should be smooth so that the learner driver will be able to understand what the driving instructor is trying to teach him.